Hong Kong’s DeepSeek-powered AI tool ranks first in world for safety: minister

Innovation chief Sun Dong dismisses data leak concerns over locally developed ‘HKGAI V1’ to be trialed in government departments

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The AI model is capable of delivering instant responses to user queries through a chatbot interface. Photo: May Tse

Published: 9:01pm, 27 Feb 2025Updated: 9:45pm, 27 Feb 2025

Hong Kong’s innovation chief has praised a locally developed artificial intelligence (AI) tool powered by mainland China’s DeepSeek, saying it has ranked first in the world for safety, citing an undisclosed report and dismissing concerns about possible data leaks.

Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong on Thursday gave the safety assurance over the ChatGPT-style tool, named “HKGAI V1”, a day after finance minister Paul Chan Mo-po underscored the need to develop AI in his latest budget blueprint.

HKGAI V1 will be trialed by more than 70 Hong Kong government departments.

In a reply to the Post’s inquiry about the potential for government data leaks, Sun said: “This model incorporates the basic infrastructure developed by DeepSeek, as well as our very good data handling system.”

He added the government attached great importance to the security of its systems.

“So I can tell you one important piece of news I just got this morning. This model was just tested by a local company regarding safety. Based on their testing results, in terms of safety, this model ranks number one in the world so far,” Sun said.